Vmware or bootcamp? (specific uses in different OS)

Hi a new mac user. Using the new 15 inch intel i7 processor model. 2.66 ghz

Would like to know whether Vmware Fusion 3, bootcamp or Parallels are better. or are there any other better virtualisation too. Bootcamp is quite troublesome for me as I may need to transfer files from windows to Mac or vice versa while running both operating software simultaneously.

I would use mac as my main OS for graphic stuffs, music, and internet surfing, while using windows 7 for engineering softwares, games and ZuneHD software (yes, im using a microsoft only zune hd, sounds dumb right. But i intend to use itunes as my main music library and zune software for selection and synchronising into the player itself). yup and windows live messenger in windows. Im concern about the performance issue for using this OS simultaneously and running engineering software at the same time. Any tools are there to monitor the performance of the computer.

In this case, shud I install microsoft office on the mac or windows?
pros and cons?
may I know about the Dos and Donts in mac too?
advice please. thanks

You can have the best of both by creating a Boot Camp partition to use for games, while at the same time install virtualization software such as Parallels or Fusion. Both Parallels and Fusion as an option, will use the Boot Camp installation of Windows as a virtual machine thereby eliminating the requirement to reboot.

Windows games run best in native Windows which is the reason why you probably would want to dual boot. Otherwise, virtualization software is more convenient and in most cases easier to setup. Note however, you still need a copy of Windows 7 for installation.

As for Microsoft Office, I prefer the Mac version (Office 2008) even though I own a copy of MS Office 2007 for Windows. My own personal preference is to run a version of the program native to OS X rather than a Windows version in Boot Camp or virtualization. Sometimes that meant I had to buy the Mac version even though I already owned the Windows one.

If you are going to be using both Mac and Windows simultaneously a lot then you really should get as much RAM as possible because generally speaking you are going to divide your computer into two. This means both sides will not be as fast as when it's a whole computer.

As mentioned by chscag for games and other demanding software you are still going to have to boot into Windows (Boot Camp) if you want them to run smoothly. Virtualization using Parallels/Fusion is better for less demanding software. It doesn't do miracles.

This also means that when possible you should get the Mac version of your software because the more software you run in Windows through virtualization the more power you have to give it. Ideally you would want to give Windows as little power as possible so that it doesn't slow down your Mac side. That's what I do. You need to experiment to see how much power you need to give Windows to keep it running smoothly for your needs.

Nothing is for free. Running both Mac and Windows at the same time slows down both sides which is why when you want the full performance of either your Mac or Windows you have to run only one of them at a time.

Mine is a 4gb ram but I guess it is not enough if im to run both OS simultaneously and use heavy programs.

If I install both using bootcamp and vmware, does it mean that I have to install twice MS7? Are they under the same MS7 partition? like if i install some program under bootcamp's MS7 can it be seen in Vmware's MS7? Or if I download files using bootcamp's MS7, can it be seen in Vmware's MS7? are they sharing the same MS7?

Are there any guides out there (installing guides) to both of these together. So I wont screwed up and end up having two MS7 in my laptop.

VMware can use your Boot Camp partition so yes it's the same. You are not installing two versions of Windows. Think of VMware as opening a gateway door to your Windows installation. This means that what you do in Windows will be the same no matter what.

It's really not that hard to install both. Just follow the instructions that Boot Camp gives you to install Windows and VMware Fusion/Parallels will have instructions on how to install their software. I installed Windows through Boot Camp first but I don't know if it makes a difference.